Securing a Faculty Advisor
A faculty advisor must be secured before admission to the Ph.D. program; this
is particularly important for Ph.D. students. It is the responsibility of the applicant to establish
rapport with faculty in a professional manner and secure a faculty advisor. The better you can
articulate what it is you hope to accomplish, the better your chances of securing a faculty
advisor. You may begin this process by sending a detailed resume/CV and a write up regarding
your dissertation interests which should include detailed information regarding your research
interests.
Before submitting the graduate application and the department application component, you must
secure an advisor. Steps to securing a faculty advisor are as follows:
1. Start by reading the systems engineering faculty bios, which can be found
here:http://www.online.colostate.edu/degrees/systems-engineering-phd/faculty.dot
2. Your faculty advisor can be a faculty member from any engineering department. You
may need to look at faculty outside of those listed at the above link.
3. Introduce yourself to faculty and provide them with some background regarding your
education goals and research desires
a. Include a detailed resume/CV
b. Indicate which program you are applying to
c. Include detailed information regarding your thesis or dissertation interest. Please
include the following:
i. What is your overall intent in pursuing a systems M.S. or Ph.D.?
1. How does your pursuit of a M.S. or Ph.D. align with your
Personal/professional goals?
2. What âvalue-addâ do you see in pursuing a M.S. or Ph.D. for you,
your company, industry etc.?
ii. Do you have a more focused area you would like to consider as a potential
thesis or dissertation topic?
1. What data set(s) would be critical for your thesis or dissertation?
2. Who would be the key contacts/contributors to a âneeds analysisâ
(maybe this has already been established via other work in your
organizationâ¦).
3. What do you hope to accomplish by conducting your research?
iii. How do you anticipate your research will be funded? i.e. are you
depending on financial support from CSU to conduct your research? Will
your employer be funding it?
Keep in mind that you need to help faculty see the connection between what you want to
research and the faculty area of expertise.
Please remember, finding an academic advisor is often the hardest part of the application
process. Faculty may take weeks to respond to you, as they are busy with current research,
students, and classes. If you are unable to clearly articulate your research interest, it is unlikely
that faculty will be interested.
Students who are accepted into the M.E. or M.S. Plan B option, may switch to the M.S. Plan A
upon finding an academic advisor.
*Check the following URL’S
http://www.online.colostate.edu/global/docs/programs/SystemsEngineeringApplicationPacket.pdf
http://www.online.colostate.edu/degrees/systems-engineering-phd/admission.dot
